


Sakura

by ArmitageRen34



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015), Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Geisha, Angst with a Happy Ending, Consensual Sex, Falling In Love, Historical, Jealousy, Kylux - Freeform, Light Angst, Loss of Virginity, M/M, Marriage, Marriage Proposal, Same-Sex Marriage, Scarification, Strangers to Lovers, Thanisson is a little shit
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-02
Updated: 2018-12-03
Packaged: 2019-04-17 14:44:18
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,622
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14191272
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ArmitageRen34/pseuds/ArmitageRen34
Summary: Armitage is a maiko who needs to undergo the traditional ceremonies, including the "mizuage" - the loss of his virginity - in order to become a real geisha. After that, he will need a "danna", a patron who will support his expenses and mantain his high life standards. Armitage’s biggest problem, at the moment, is his squeamishness about the candidates to his mizuage.





	1. A misbehaving maiko

###  **Introduction**

 

 

“So, Armitage, how did it go?” Mitaka asked, sitting cross-legged on the young man’s bed.

Mitaka was only a  _ shikomi _ , an apprentice, but he was nothing less than anxious to become as soon as possible a  _ maiko _ , an expert apprentice soon-to-be  _ geisha _ , like Armitage, the redhead he was talking to.

Armitage’s apprenticeship had never been easy, but lately it had become an absolute hell. 

A  _ maiko  _ could become a  _ geisha  _ through two ceremonies: the  _ mizuage  _ \- that required the loss of the  _ maiko _ ’s virginity - and the  _ erikae  _ \- that required the change of the red collar, typical of apprentices, with the white one, typical of  _ geishas _ .

Armitage’s biggest problem, at the moment, was his squeamishness about the candidates to his  _ mizuage _ . He already succeeded in making three of them run away only by cruelly teasing them whenever he was left alone with them. The one who had just hurriedly left his room was the fourth.

“What do you want to know, Mitaka?” He brusquely answered, while he brushed his long red hair. “Have you seen him? He was an old man, I didn’t find him attractive at the least. Besides, he was stupid. I didn’t want to give myself to him.”.

Mitaka whistled. “Snoke is not going to be happy about this, you know, Armie. I bet he’s already coming here to scold you...”.

Armitage tightened his lips and didn’t say anything else. But he knew the younger man was right.

The young, red-headed  _ geisha _ had just finished brushing his hair as Snoke, the proprietor of the  _ okiya, _ broke into the room. “I told you so many times, Armitage!” He was shouting, grasping the young man’s hair and painfully pulling them. “Your beauty means nothing if you can’t behave! I can’t believe how you could make a potential  _ danna _ run so fast after spending only ten minutes with him!  _ Again _ !”.

Armitage gritted his teeth and glared at the older man. “It’s not my fault he is so stupid! I don’t want a nobody like him in my bed for my  _ mizuage  _ \-  ”.

Snoke interrupted him, shouting at the point of almost spitting on his face. “You will never, ever have a proper  _ mizuage  _ if you go on behaving like this! I won’t invest any more money in your geisha training - I should sell you to a brothel instead, you ungrateful little bitch! I paid for you, and I am being repaid with nothing! You are useless!”.

Armitage winced. Snoke’s warning reminded him of how his father used to describe him:  _ thin as a slip of paper, and just as useless. _ After all, Brendol sold him to the  _ okiya  _ after understanding that his son was too delicate to become a warrior or an employee. 

_ I will not cry _ , he promised to himself. _ I will not let anyone see my tears. _

“I will  _ not  _ be sold to a brothel” He snarled instead. “I would kill myself before it!”.

Snoke pulled at his hair again, making him groan. “You will be sold to whoever or whatever I want, if the next man who tries to have your  _ mizuage  _ runs away! I will ask to the last candidate on your list to come here tonight, before this umpteenth refusal becomes common knowledge in this town, to ask him if he’s still interested in you - and if you will not be agreeable and amenable with him, you will suffer the consequences!”.

And with that, the proprietor of the  _ okiya  _ stormed off.

“Well, at least he didn’t kill you” Mitaka commented, just after the door slammed behind Snoke.

Armitage collapsed in his chair, ignoring the younger man. 

Well, he didn’t have any more chances of escaping his fate, did he? He could only hope that the last candidate to his  _ mizuage  _ was not so old and stupid as the previous one. 

Escaping the  _ okiya  _ was not a solution - he already tried that, years before, just after his father sold him. Snoke had found out his attempt and had beaten him senseless. He didn’t want to give him any other reasons to beat him, not after his last threats.

He resumed his brushing, although with less gentleness than before, and looked stubbornly at his own reflection in the mirror.

“I will not cry” He promised again to himself, “I will never cry.”.


	2. First Encounter

Just as he had promised, Snoke invited Armitage’s last candidate to the  _ okiya  _ that same evening.

The redhead had never seen him, because the proprietor of the  _ okiya  _ conducted every negotiation in his own private tea chamber. He could only hope for a kind and gentle man, not too much old. Hoping for more would have been utterly foolish. He could not afford to reject this candidate, too - he remembered all too well the threats made by Snoke.

“How will he be? Have you seen him, Mitaka?” Armitage whispered to the  _ shikomi _ , who was still uselessly trying to get a glimpse of the mysterious man through the thin space of the door lock. The younger man sadly shook his head. “I’m sorry, Armie - I can’t see anything. They’re on the left of the room, far from the door lock.”. 

Armitage made an impatient gesture and cursed under his breath, resigning himself to wait until the negotiations were over. But the night came, and after that came the dawn… and Snoke and the unknown man were still discussing. That had never happened before - all the negotiations conducted before with his previous candidates had been fast, almost hurried.

“It is said to be a good sign when a candidate to a  _ maiko _ ’s  _ mizuage  _ spends a lot of time negotiating with the proprietor” Mitaka whispered in Armitage’s ears. “It means that the proprietor is trying to earn more money from him. He must be a wealthy man, Armie - a rich one, indeed!”.

The redhead was almost saddened. If the man was so rich, he couldn’t be young - how could he have earned such a huge amount of money only in a few years?

_ My dear ancestors  _ \- he prayed to himself -  _ since he can’t be young, at least let him be gentle with me. _

Armitage and Mitaka were still waiting anxiously in the  _ shikomi _ ’s bedroom when Thanisson, the okiya’s full-fledged  _ geisha _ , appeared on the chamber’s threshold just to cruelly tease the  _ maiko _ .

Thanisson had hated Armitage since the first day he laid eyes upon him. The redheaded man’s beauty fully outmatched his own and Armitage was at least ten years younger than him - Thanisson knew that and his jealousy knew no boundaries. Since then, he had never lost a single occasion to tease and cruelly mistreat Armitage, messing with him and trying to accuse him of every unlucky event that happened in the  _ okiya _ .

“Well well well, what do we have here? The little bastard, waiting to know his fate” Thanisson viciously declared. “You know, Armie, I have seen your last candidate. How unfortunate for you - he’s so old and ugly that I would never let him lay a hand upon me. But, since he’s your last chance to have a proper  _ mizuage _ , you can’t be picky anymore, can you?”.

The younger man visibly paled, although he tried to maintain his composure. “I don’t believe you.”.

“Oh, believe me, dear Armie” The other man singsonged cheerfully. “It’s the truth. He’s a vicious old man who cannot wait to take part to some young, desperate  _ maiko _ ’s  _ mizuage  _ just to treat him horribly. And, since you made all the other men run away, he will pay almost nothing to have you. Not that anyone would invest much more on your virginity, but…”.

Armitage’s cheeks suddenly blushed and he threw the object nearer to him - a comb - straight in Thanisson’s face. “I don’t believe you, you viper! - you rattlesnake!” He began to snarl, while the other man graciously bent himself to avoid the flying comb and went out of the room laughing.

The redhead collapsed again on the bed, his face covered with his pale and thin fingers. “Oh, Mitaka” He whispered worried “What if he is right? What if my only candidate is a monster?”.

“...Well.” The  _ shikomi  _ began, a little uncertainly “I’m sure that Thanisson was speaking like that only because of his envy, Armie. I’m sure your candidate is not so terrible as he’d like you to believe”.

As he was speaking, the door to Snoke’s private tea chamber opened.

“Dear Armitage, come here! You will be happy to know that this is the best deal I’ve ever made. After all, how could your beauty go unnoticed? Come here, dear boy, and let your patron see you!”.

The young man paled again and stood, walking trembly towards Snoke. He felt as if he was about to faint.

“You know, dear boy, that seeing your patron before your  _ mizuage  _ brings bad luck. Do not worry about this - I will put a blindfold on your eyes, so everything will go well.” The proprietor of the  _ okiya  _ said, giving him a determined look that seemed to explicitely say something along the lines of “ _ obey me, or you will pay the consequences” _ .

Armitage nodded and let Snoke put the blindfold on him, even more worried than before. Was the mysterious man so hideous that he was not allowed to see him before the dreaded ceremonial night?

_ Maybe Thanisson was right, after all _ \- he thought, and felt his blood run cold.

“So, this is our dear Armitage, but you have already seen him before” he heard Snoke almost purr at their guest, while the old man’s hands tugged at the ribbon of his kimono and untied it, letting the cloth open. “Your money could not be better invested - check for yourself, he is perfect”.

Snoke let the young man’s kimono fall, much to the redhead’s embarrassment and shame. He almost felt like one of the whores of the town brothel, who exposed themselves to their clients’ stares in order to blatantly tempt them. He had hoped for something more intimate for the first encounter with the man who had won the right to deflower him. 

He was surprised when he heard a soft, deep chuckle. “He is indeed wonderful - even better than I could ever expect. But we should cover him - he looks rather embarrassed and I don’t want him to hate me even before he sees me .”.

Strong, gentle hands collected his kimono from the floor and draped it around his shoulders, covering him again. His moves were too fast, his grip on the tissue too strong to be that of an old man. If only he could have stolen a glimpse of that man and satisfy his own curiosity…

“My name is Ren. And I can’t wait to know you better” The man whispered in his ear. 


	3. Sake

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Before anyone asks me: yes, it seems that the 7-days ceremony with eggs really existed. I discovered it in "Geisha" by Liza Dalby ("The Deflowering Arrangement", page 109).

If Thanisson had hated Armitage much before that day, his hatred grew stronger and stronger since he learned all the details about the deal for Armitage’s  _ mizuage.  _

Ren had agreed to pay a fortune for it - the highest bid ever made in the whole Japan for a  _ mizuage _ . He came from a very rich and scarcely prolific family, which meant that he had indeed inherited an immense fortune from his ancestors. He could afford every price Snoke would have suggested him.

And he was fascinated with the redhead - oh, so fascinated! He had seen the  _ maiko  _ for the first time three years ago, at the temple, and he had patiently waited all that time in order to make a bid for him. The only thought of such a devotion wasted on a dull, lackluster man like Armitage made the  _ geisha  _ want to puke.

Armitage had almost fainted when Snoke told him the price Ren would pay for him; Thanisson, instead, had thrown the biggest tantrum of his life. How could this pale, skinny, scrawny parody of a wannabe  _ geisha _ dare to break such a record? He was nothing special! And still...

All that Thanisson had, now, was the duty to assist Armitage during the ceremony and he was obviously not happy at all to obey. The ceremony for the mizuage traditionally lasted a week and the soon-to-be  _ geisha  _ had to be helped along every day of it.

Before the beginning of the ceremony, the  _ maiko  _ had to drink a small amount of sake in company of his patron, as a symbol of their bond. Armitage and Ren had drunk their sake in the tea room of the  _ okiya _ , under Thanisson’s bored and annoyed supervision. The  _ maiko  _ was undoubtedly embarrassed and shy, not daring to openly look at his patron, stealing instead quick glances every time he thought that the other wasn’t fully paying attention to him. 

With those glances Armitage found out that Ren was incredibly attractive. He would never dare to let his look linger more than a few seconds on the other man’s face, but what he had seen had struck many a string in his heart, making it resonate to a tune he never had thought possible.

It was not love, for he knew too little of his patron to really say he could feel something like that for him - but in his heart a flame of burning lust had surely been ignited.

He had been told Ren was old, ugly, cruel, vicious - but he was nothing like that. He hadn’t ever laid a hand on Armitage in a disrespectful or inappropriate way and he had insisted on covering his naked body again when Snoke had showed him off. 

However, the young man seemed also to be not totally insensitive to the maiko’s physical appearance.

While they were drinking their sake, Armitage had caught once Ren staring straight at him; his patron, after all, was not a shy man, for he went on staring at him with his dark, deep eyes and a smirk on his lips.

Armitage had quickly lowered his own eyes, blushing furiously and hating himself for it.

_ What has happened to me? _ He wondered, blushing furiously.  _ I have to show him I am not only a pretty face. I won’t be his blushing doll. And I wonder if he already knows something about me. _

As if Ren had been reading his mind, he smirked again and tried to make conversation. “So, Armitage, I’ve been told something about you lately…”.

The redhead almost choked on his tea. “Something nice, I hope” He muttered, desperately trying to sound relaxed and confident. Kylo smiled devilishly and giggled. “Not at all” He replied. “ Everybody told me you were feisty, arrogant and - I am just quoting them - an absolute pain in the ass”.

Armitage stared speechlessly at him. “...Well. If that’s true, why did you offer yourself to…?” He intentionally left the sentence’s end vague.  _ All of this does not make sense _ , he thought.

“Maybe I liked you nevertheless” Kylo shrugged, still smiling at him. “I saw you years ago. You were at the temple and you were stunningly beautiful... I saw you and knew I had to have you all for myself. As a matter of fact, I am going to ask Snoke if I can become your  _ danna _ .” He said con utter nonchalance.

Armitage stared at him. After these words, he was sure that Ren had to be either a masochist or a madman.

“I’m not even a  _ geisha  _ yet!” He blurted out aggressively. “And don’t I have a say on the choice of my own  _ danna _ ? What makes you so sure I’ll be happy to accept your offer?”.

Ren drank another sip of sake with a thoughtful air. He was surely trying to answer that question without being offensive, but the silence between the two men lasted until Thanisson - who was still in the room and, as it seemed, not yet asleep, spoke up annoyed. “It never ceases to amaze me, Armitage, how utterly stupid and inconsiderate you are. You’ve already made every other candidate to your mizuage run away, until the last one, a young and handsome man nonetheless!, offers to both have your  _ mizuage  _ and become your  _ danna  _ and you are already trying to turn it down. You foolish boy, wait until Snoke will know this -”.

“Snoke will never know anything from your mouth” Ren angrily spatted out, turning towards the  _ geisha _ . “Armitage has every right to choose whoever he wants. If he will not have me gladly, I will accept his own decision and leave. Until then, you are not to speak. You are here only to prevent any inappropriate behaviour for either or us - and I’m not referring to the bratty one!”.

“Hey! I’m not bratty” Armitage complained, but he could not hide a little smirk on his face. After all, he could like, maybe even learn to love, this strange young man. Ren smirked back at him and took his hand.

“It’s time for the second part of the ceremony for today, my dear” He whispered, leading Armitage towards the chamber especially prepared for them. 

After drinking the sake, it was indeed tradition for the already experienced _geisha_ to prepare a chamber and place three eggs by the pillows, then withdraw to an adjacent room. 

The  _ maiko _ ’s patron had to make her lie down and break the eggs; while the yolks had to be swallowed by him, the whites had to be rubbed between the _ maiko _ ’s legs. Nothing else had to happen: the patron had to greet the soon-to-be  _ geisha  _ and go away. This had to happen for a week, in order to let the virgin get used to that kind of touch and give an adequate amount of energy to his partner. 

Then, at the end of the week, the patron could finally claim the  _ maiko _ ’s virginity.

Armitage, trying to seem bold despite his equal amount of fear and impatience, took off his clothes and laid bare on the bed, making his best efforts not to bury his own face in the pillows for the shame. Ren stared at him wordlessly, his mouth slightly open in awe. 

“I don’t know if I can wait for a week. You’re tempting me so much and I don’t know if I can resist” Ren shyly confessed to the equally embarrassed young man laid in front of him, taking one egg in his hand and looking down at Armitage’s pale cheeks, evidently thinking about other  _ creative ways _ to use those eggs on the young man.

The  _ maiko _ ’s face got red as a raspberry, guessing what he meant with that look. 

“Get on with it!” He harshly whispered, almost hiding his face in his own hands. Armitage swore he could have died right on the spot as Kylo slowly broke the eggs, ate the yolk with a grimace and finally,  _ finally  _ touched him gently. Armitage tensed up immediately, but the touch was so enjoyable that he let a careful, shy sigh escape from his lips. Ren was a high and well-toned man, but his touch was light as a feather.

“I’d like to be more intimate with you, but I can’t, for now. I can’t even kiss you or hold you yet - only this. I can’t even make you cum - I can only give you the barest touch to make you feel less shy over time. But I promise it will all be better after these damned days. We’ll talk much more, I’ll get to know you and your body. You’ll teach me how to pleasure you” Kylo whispered hurriedly, his own fingers circling on the skin around Armitage’s virgin hole. He was supposed only to greet him without saying anything else, but he couldn’t leave without secretly reassuring the  _ maiko _ . Then he stood up and stepped away from the bed, not without some regret. How he wished he could have his way with the  _ maiko  _ that same night! “So...goodnight, my love, for now.” He muttered, throwing a last, long glance full of blatant desire and closing Armitage’s bedroom door behind him. Armitage pulled the blanket over his head, hiding himself. If he said anything at all, Kylo could not hear him.


	4. Mizuage - part one

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did you think I had abandoned this story? Nope, not at all. But I'm getting my degree in a couple of months and I had some health issues, so the new chapters were a bit delayed. I'll publish them more regularly.

At the end of the week, Armitage had got used to Ren’s fingers. So used indeed, that he actually began to think about alternative sceneries for that evening. “What if I ride him?” The redhead whispered to Mitaka, almost giggling, while the  _ shikomi  _ brought a hand to his own lips, scandalized.

“Armie… You can’t ride your future  _ danna  _ during your  _ mizuage _ ! He won’t ever believe you’re a virgin, he will complain to Snoke and you’ll end up sold to a brothel! For your ancestors’ sake, Armitage, please just lay down and think of the Emperor!”.

The young  _ maiko  _ pouted. Even if it had been very pleasurable to feel Ren’s fingers in places where his skin was so sensitive, he didn’t quite appreciate the idea to submit to him. “But what if…” He never finished the sentence, though, because Snoke came in the room.

“My dear Armitage! My dear, exquisite child!” He began to say. Since Kylo had paid for the redhead’s mizuage, the owner of the  _ okiya  _ had been sweet like a sugar cube to him. After all, he had his own reasons to be gentle to the goose that had laid him the golden egg: Armitage was the most valuable investment he had ever done in his life. “Have you prepared yourself for tonight? Dear Kylo will be here soon and he’ll be so impatient to have you! What have you been doing until now? You still have to dress up and to apply makeup! Mitaka, quit wasting precious time - go fetch the most elegant kimono we have, the red one with the golden autumn leaves!”.

Thanisson stormed up into the room, involuntarily revealing that he was eavesdropping in the corridor. “But that kimono is  _ mine _ , he can’t use it! It’s my most precious belonging and it’s not even fit for a  _ maiko  _ \- he should be wearing a long-sleeved one until that man has fu-” 

Snoke interrupted his tirade with an imposing gesture. “You will shut up and tend to your work, young man! Armitage here is earning his good share of money for the  _ okiya _ , while you’ve been doing nothing if not pouting and having us deal with your terrible temper! You’d better return to your own job, if you don’t want to end up earning your wage in the street!”.

Thanisson became pale as a sheet of paper, then red, while fury and humiliation spread across his face.

He clearly couldn’t muster the courage to stand up to Snoke, but the poisonous glance he threw at Armitage spoke already too well for itself. “Fine. Enjoy your luck, little fox, until it lasts! After that, I’ll be the one who’ll laugh!” The young man hissed, picking up his garments and getting outside the room.

 

\- - - - - 

 

The time set for meeting with Ren came so early that Armitage couldn’t almost realize how quickly he had found himself in his own room with his  _ danna _ . He felt quite embarrassed, while said man slowly approached him, giving long appreciating glances to his clothings. Where all his own boldness had gone, he could not tell. Under Kylo’s heated glare, he was nervous and tensed. 

“This kimono is nice” Kylo whispered after some moments of silence, daring to touch the cloth with a finger and following with it the contours of the embroidered  leaves. “But what is under it is much nicer. Will you let me see again that too?”.

Armitage knew it was merely a rhetorical question, but he quietly nodded nevertheless. His fingers trembled while he nervously played and fiddled with the front of his  _ obi _ , the belt of the kimono, and Kylo covered the redhead’s hands with his own. “Are you scared?” He whispered, caressing Armitage’s soft skin like a man in love would have done.

“No” Armitage lied through his teeth, not looking the other man in the eyes.

Kylo hummed knowingly. It was clear that he hadn’t been convinced, but he let Armitage be. For the moment. “I suppose I will have to undo your  _ obi _ , since the knot is on your back.”

“Yes, that’s… that’s correct. We cannot tie our  _ obi  _ by ourselves, amd we can’t untie them as well.”

Kylo’s hands left Armitage’s ones and brushed lightly against the rich, elaborate knot behind the young man’s back. “Why don’t you put your knot on the front?” He naively asked.

Armitage hissed. “Only prostitutes tie their knots on the front, because they have to untie them often for clients! Who do you think you’re talking to? A whore?”.

“I didn’t mean to offend you! I didn’t know. I thought  _ geishas _ wore their  _ obi  _ tied on the back for…” Kylo gestured vaguely “...I don’t know, common fashion sense?”.

Armitage rolled his eyes. “Common fashion sense. Right. How could I not think of this reason”.

Kylo chuckled and slowly started to pull the colorful tails of the  _ obi _ , undoing the knot. “I like your sarcasm, Armitage. I should have known that a man with such fiery hair could not be pliant and docile. In fact, I really hoped you’d be a match to me.” Armitage closed his eyes and silently held his breath while his future  _ danna  _ uncoiled the  _ obi  _ and threw it on the floor. The kimono’s flaps slightly parted open on the front, letting Kylo catch a glimpse of pale skin and an already full erect cock. 

“But what if it’s  _ you  _ who’s not a match for  _ me _ ?” Armitage’s challenging glare seemed only to make Ren even more excited. He grabbed the redhead’s hips - stealing a little, undignified shriek from his lips - and lifted him with minimal efforts, only to carry him towards the bed and laying him down. 

“How dare you manhandling me, you… you oaf!” Armitage gasped, scrambling on the bed while Ren opened his own kimono as well and straddled the young  _ maiko _ ’s hips. 

“Such words of love I hear from you, my dove, that I could drop on my knees right now and ask your hand in marriage! I bet you’re going to give me even more sweetness when I’ll make love to you, aren’t you?” Ren said mockingly, bringing his hands upon his own heart and giving Armitage his best grin. However, the young man under him stilled and stared at him, tensing like a prey under the aim of an hunter’s gun.

_ So this is it _ , Armitage thought, stiffening a bit.  _ He may be joking about it, but it’s time. Just lay down and think of the Emperor, like Mitaka said, just lay down and - _

“I want to ride you.” 

The dreaded words left his lips even before Armitage’s mind even registered them. It was too late to take them back, so Armitage braced himself and waited for the storm.

Ren blinked a couple of times, suddenly looking unsure. “I may...have not heard well?”.

The redhead pursed his lips, then tried to summon all of his own courage to speak again. He failed miserably. “I said, I’d love to see you ride. You know. A horse.”.

Ren looked now even more confused, but nodded nevertheless. “I have some horses in the country. You could come and visit me sometimes - I’d love to show you what they can do. They’re intelligent animals and they can do a lot of nice tricks, if you teach them correctly…”. His gaze, a bit dreamy, landed on Armitage again, and he smirked. “For now, I’ll have to ride a much naive and inexpert little horse, won’t I?”.

The redhead cringed inside at the worst innuendo he had ever heard in his life, but smiled at Ren nevertheless. The smile looked a bit forced, but Ren didn’t seem to notice, too enthralled by the redhead’s beauty to complain about anything else.

_ Lay down and think of the Emperor. _


End file.
